What the hell is that? Oaktown rocks for Chabot Space and Science Center, Oakland Zoo, Chabot Golf Course, Lake Merritt, Jack London Square and plenty of other places/things.

It does not rock for the Coliseum and surrounding area (save for the Airport because I love to fly out of Oakland or San Jose for their ease of use as compared to San Francisco).

You heard it here, but definitely not first.

just clogs up the route between San Francisco and Los Angeles of Anaheim

is saying Oakland rocks/San Jose sucks. You clearly missed the point so I’ll say it, er write it, again.

Wanting the team to stay in Oakland is fine. I want them to stay in the Bay Area, if that is Oakland… GREAT!!!

The point is, making an argument in favor of Oakland doesn’t require putting down San Jose and vice versa.

Oakland is better located, more linked to area history and culture (high tech yuppies notwithstanding, but we can probably do without those), and just a more attractive place to be. The A’s are part of the city’s identity for many. I have a hard time believing that the A’s would really win over any core baseball fans in the SJ area who have probably been with the Giants for years due to the Cal league team and ability to take Caltrain up to games in SF. Corporate support only goes so far and to establish a winning tradition there needs to be a strong support network that gets players excited about playing there. While many of us in the East Bay would still root for the team, it would be so much more difficult to get to games, tailgate, and support the team in action. Oakland should be option #1 for the team. A new stadium anywhere will attract enough corporate interest, I’m sure Cisco would still be willing to put their name on the building etc. because the advertising opportunity is exactly the same (still the proven product of MLB, 81 days a year).

The NEW YORK Jets and NEW YORK Giants… play in New Jersey.

etc

and the Philadelphia A’s before that. The point is that a market’s ability to support a pro sports franchises is not static. Most tend to ebb and flow. And Oakland is just not supporting the A’s. That’s not being a hater, that’s a reality. Did you notice the tarps last year?

I want the A’s to stay in Oakland. My parents, grandparents and sister all have season tickets (grandparents since the early 70s), and my brother and the rest of the family go often. I live down south, but I’ve got a flight and a ticket in 117 for April 10th. But if the A’s can’t survive in Oakland, I put the team’s interest ahead of personal interests.

I will make no illusions about it: I’d like for the A’s to move in order to make more money. More money (at least with the A’s FO spending it) helps the teams compete on a yearly basis. More money means shorter less frequent rebuilding projects. More money means not having to trade valuable players away in order to restock the farm system. More money means more opportunity, more room for error, and maybe, just maybe, more success in the post-season.

I get what you’re saying about the A’s knack for competing despite a limited payroll, and wanting to support that. But wouldn’t you want to improve their chances? I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty over the “limited payroll” qualifier. It’s becoming a crutch.

If your myopia doesn’t allow you to see the difference between moving 30-40 miles away and moving to the other side of the world there is no kind of doctor (psychologist, optometrist, etc.) that can help you.

Have you been to the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum? The Peralta Adobe? Lick Observatory?

I bet you’d be the first to decry the sweeping generalizations that people often make about Oakland being crime ridden and full of gangsters. The people who say “There is no there there” and frequently. It is horribly Ironic that you would do the same thing to San Jose.

Sounds like the PERFECT place for a Major League Baseball team.

took an hour to do sf—sj.

And does anyone think the a’s are going to arrive in sj before the already planned BART extention?

I can’t figure out why of the Top 100 prospects in my 49 year old fictional league, only 6 are pitchers (and it’s not really an offense-heavy league). I also can’t figure out why Stuff seems to deteriorate three times as fast as control. I’m tired of pitchers being 40 and throwing 200 innings with 50 strikeouts.

seriously, if you go there, you’ll be within 100 feet of my place … yeah … not QUITE enough information to get any stalkers … or so I hope … unless they’re cute, young, female stalkers … they can go ahead and email, I’ll give them my address …

NHL and NBA arenas are about the same size, indoor, play comparable schedules during the same season …

And, except for a few years there, before they ended the longest playoff drought in NBA history, the Warriors are and have usually been right around 100% attendance.

The Warriors are just evidence that NBA/NHL success do not at all indicate MLB success in a city — not to compare Oakland and San Jose.

It happens. It would be better to employ a system using a weighted population count based on distance from the potential stadium, ideally factoring in transit realities — but, absent that (which actually wouldn’t be hard, with the right data) — metro areas are the best information we have.

I would say that the Sharks are as irrelevant to San Jose’s case as the Warriors are to Oakland’s or the Canadians to Montreal. It’s just not at all relevant.

The A’s would do fine in San Jose — especially employing the smaller stadium, more expensive seat model that Wolfe has always pushed. San Jose would be successful because of the presence of corporate dollars and a moderately large, high income population. It’s just not a kind of success that appeals to my populist sensibilities.

yet the last place 74 win tigers were out of contention by may and still sold 3.2 million tickets, up over 600k from when they went to the world series in 2006. maybe baseball in detroit will outlast the city of detroit.